1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunication systems and, particularly, to a system and method for linking software elements in a telecommunications system.
2. Description Of the Related Art
Telephony systems are becoming increasingly complex. The widespread use of the Internet Protocol in data communications systems has led to interest in “Voice over IP” (VoIP) and “Telephony over LAN” (ToL) applications. In particular, several IP telephony protocols have been developed, including the H.323 Recommendation suite of protocols promulgated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), to name a few.
At the same time, there remains a large installed base of users of traditional private branch exchange (PBX) networks. While such users would benefit from low cost IP telephony, the idea of replacing such existing systems may be undesirable. An intermediate solution is the use of a Telephony Internet Server that interfaces a PBX and a packet network, and provides signaling conversion between protocols used by the PBX and by the packet network.
To be viable, such Telephony Internet Servers need to be able to dynamically add features. Moreover, it is desirable to balance system workload.